New Law In Arizona: Guns Bought In Gov’t Buybacks Will be Sold To The Public

Gun buybacks are essentially like the “Cash for Clunkers” program for guns. People bring in broken, old or sometimes illegal guns that have been used in a crime and they get paid by the government, which then scraps the weapons.

It’s a dumb idea that should be abandoned altogether, but if it is going to be done, Arizona is at least doing it the smart way. Republican Governor Jan Brewer just signed a new law that requires guns recovered in government buyback programs to be auctioned off publicly to federally licensed firearms dealers.

What does that accomplish? Well, hopefully it will pay back some of the cost of the program. If it costs $50,000 to buy the guns, why spend more money to turn them into scrap when they can be sold to licensed dealers to offset the cost of the gun buyback?

Naturally, left-wingers are unhappy. Liberal State Senator Steve Gallardo even said it is, “insensitive for us now to be putting these guns back on the streets.”

So essentially, Gallardo is saying taxpayers in Arizona should waste tens of thousands of dollars on every gun buyback for no other reason than because he thinks guns are icky.